By Andy Brack | Twenty years from now, historians just might look back on the past week as the tipping point for state legislators finally “getting it” that public education, particularly in rural areas, needs a lot of attention, not episodic Band-aids.

The state House of Representatives finally seems to have a leader — a man who grew up in the Corridor of Shame’s Darlington County — who is walking the walk, not just talking the talk about public education. GOP House Speaker Jay Lucas this week challenged a special new panel of leaders he appointed to look for real fixes to public education, solutions that should be innovative, bold and inventive.